Roller Skiing World Cup title for Tanel, Ekberg, Mortagna and Prochazkova

Matteo Tanel and Laura Mortagna won the crystal globe after an intense season on roller skis. Italy achieved great results today in Val di Fiemme on Alpe Cermis. Besides the two World Cup champions – the first from Bolzano, the second from S.Giustina Bellunese –, Elisa Sordello was able to win the Mini Tour Rollerski Trentino and Luca Curti finished 3rd. The Scandinavians also celebrated with the Cup won by the Swede Johan Ekberg (Junior) and Slovakia with a very strong Alena Prochazkova.

It was difficult to interpret today's race. The athletes started from Ziano in a pursuit race (15 km men senior and 13 km all the others) according to the gaps accumulated in the three previous days of the Mini Tour. This means that the athletes started according to the ranking of the Mini Tour – not according to the World Cup standings – a bit as it happens in the Tour de Ski.

The men senior race started first. Tanel started with the yellow bib of Cup leader. He started 37" ahead of Curti and even 55" ahead of the Russian Dementiev. The South Tyrolean led the race with great determination along the valley and already in Lago di Tesero, passing through the cross-country stadium, behind him there was a group of four athletes with Dementiev just ahead of Curti, Emanuele Becchis and Kristoffersen. As soon as Tanel started to ‘climb’ Alpe Cermis – the last three kilometres of the race – Dementiev started to close the gap and at 1,500 metres from the finish line, the Russian overtook him. In the World Cup standings Tanel had a good lead. So, knowing that his most direct rival Gustafsson was behind, he managed the situation arriving on Cermis behind the Russian, but with the eighth time of the day. Curti finished third. Gustafsson pushed hard on the climb, getting the second best time of the day and arriving seventh in the Mini Tour, but he didn’t manage to win the silver medal in the Cup standings, won by Dementiev.

The junior race was very balanced. Johan Ekberg played the leading role with his red leader bib. Behind him, his teammate Gisselman finished second ahead of the Norwegian Korsaeth.

Among the ladies, the senior race saw the direct battle between the two Swedes Moa Olsson and Linn Soemskar with the World Cup leader, the Slovak Alena Prochazkova. The good teamwork has not subverted the prediction for the final victory of the Cup. The two Swedes arrived in order on Cermis and the Slovakian finished fourth, thus winning the crystal globe. The junior race was the last race of the day; Italy’s hopes were placed in Laura Mortagna from Belluno, but it was the great day of Elisa Sordello from Cuneo. Sordello started 3rd with 27" from the leader of the Mini Tour Kovalova. She closed the gap and took the lead on Cermis and won her first World Cup race. A great satisfaction for the nineteen-year-old queen of the day, with the two Mortagna sisters struggling on the climb as never before. Second place on Cermis for Kovalova, third place for the German Lena Keck. The two sisters from Belluno arrived slightly behind, but at the end of the day, Laura Mortagna managed to win the crystal globe; thanks to today's victory, Sordello managed to get the silver medal ahead of Alba Mortagna, who finished third in the Cup standings.

As always, the direction of the Val di Fiemme committee was of great value. The World Cup leaders received their crystal globes. Now a few days off, then everyone at work in view of the ‘little World Championships’ in January with three days of Tour de Ski, three days of FIS Nordic Combined World Cup and two days of FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, in the two stadiums of Lago di Tesero and Predazzo that will host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.